Dragon Ball XVI
by Elbadj
Summary: The Shadow Dragons strike fear into the hearts of the populace and with the Z-Fighters identities known to the public, they begin to become the focus point of the people's anger over their perceived unwillingness to help. Meanwhile, in the wider galaxy, Kuriza becomes concerned as subversive elements push the Interplanetary Federation to the brink of a civil war.
1. Prologue: The Black Hole in the Basement

**Prologue**

_The Black Hole in the Basement_

* * *

The little girl, about six-years old, sat at the table and quietly ate her food. It was dark outside and the low watt bulb just about provided light for the room. She was sat at a small table in the middle of a run-down kitchen, the units unclean and greasy. Her head and shoulders cleared the top of the wooden table, and she had to lean her arms up in order to cut the food.

There was no noise apart from the creak of house.

She carried on in silence, oblivious to her surroundings. Then, above her and distantly, she began to perceive a sound. Like something falling, only much faster and with much greater force. The noise whipped by overhead and then there as sudden rumbling sound and a vibrating of the room. She looked over her shoulder, to the window behind her. She couldn't see anything outside. But she had definitely heard and felt something. Curious she put her fork down, with the piece of beef on the end of it, and hopped off her chair. She made her way out of the kitchen and down the wooden corridor. She reached up and opened the door. Stepping outside she walked down a cluttered and overgrown pathway. She could hear a faint hissing noise in the air and followed it across the small brown field outside the house, which stood alone.

She came across a few pots of ground that were blown out, a shallow path of mud stretching between them. This then led to a larger crater, over the top of which she could see a metallic sphere. She quickened her pace and came to the edge of the crater. In the centre of it was a large metallic sphere. The smoke and noise was emanating from it. She could hear words being spoken in anger, but they were ones she had not heard before. There was a snapping sound, followed by a hiss, and a door opened and a man with extremely long hair tumbled out and collapsed onto his back.

The man gave a wheeze of pain and clutched his side. He wore armour that was broken in several places, and blood leaked down his arm and across his body. His face was bruised, and he had a funny device that slid over one ear and had a coloured glass over his eye. His hair was long, extremely long, black and spiky and disappeared under his body.

The man groaned and opened his eyes. He blinked, spotting the girl, dressed in a thin nightgown, with shoulder length black and white hair, at the top of the crater, staring down at him.

"What do you want?" Raditz growled.

"Nothing," the girl said. "Just looking at you." She cocked her head. "Why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying!" he spat, whilst wiping his eyes. "Saiyan warriors do not cry!"

"You look like you're hurt. Nobody would blame you if you cried. I cry all the time when I get hurt, even for little scratches."

"Yeah well that's because you're a baby." Raditz groaned as he rolled over and pulled himself to his feet, clutching his side.

The girl puffed her cheeks. "I am not a baby! I'm six years old!"

"Yeah, yeah…" He tapped his scouter and it blipped onto the girl.

_7-_

No other readings were picked up in the immediate area. "Kid when I was your age I was already being sent out to genocide planets, trust me you're a baby in comparison."

"What's genocide?"

"Nothing you need concern yourself with. Hopefully for all your life."

He tapped his scouter and looked around. No other readings were being picked up. "You out here all alone?" he asked.

"Yeah, all by myself." She spoke with a note of pride.

"Huh…" He tapped his scouter, turning it off. He moved the hand at his side and winced, hissing in pain again. "Do you live anywhere, or are you just sitting in the field?"

"I live in the house up there. Do you want to come?"

"Sure. Do you have any medical stuff?"

"Maybe. I can check for you."

"Thanks…" He gave her a quizzical look and then shook his head. He clambered out of the crater and the girl led him along the field. The grass crunched underneath his boots and he glanced around at it. There was nothing out there for miles, though he thought he could see some mountains in the distance. He looked up. A starry and clear night, but no moon.

"No moon…" he muttered.

"Huh?" the girl asked, looking over her shoulder.

"There's no moon on this planet."

The girl looked shocked. "Of course there's no moon. If there was a moon the great beasts would come and kill everyone!"

Despite himself Raditz smirked. Their reputation travelled fast it seemed.

They carried on in silence for a moment.

"There's the house," the girl announced, pointing forward. She sounded excited.

Raditz looked up. The house was large, three floors, and seemed to stretch out onto the back. It also looked old. Very old. The wood was crooked and weather beaten, parts of it looked like they were crumbling.

"Is it safe?" Raditz asked.

"Of course it is!" the girl replied. "This is really fun, I've never had people over to the house before."

"I can see why…" He looked around at the area again. Nothing there.

They stepped inside and she led him down the corridor to the kitchen, Raditz stepping gingerly as each footstep caused a loud creaking sound that he did not like. Much of the house was wreathed in darkness, the various low watt bulbs shedding very little light on the area. For some reason Raditz was very unnerved by the whole experience. He couldn't find the reason, when he probed himself for the information though. He settled on the idea that it must be because he was injured and therefore not in a fit state for battle. That had to be it.

He grimaced. Stupid job. He'd been misinformed about the make-up of the population. There had actually been some competent fighters, with some strong technology on the planet. It had not been as easy as he had been told it would be. Now that he thought of it, he could have sworn he detected a smirk on Zarbon's green face when he handed the assignment over to him. Stupid asshole, when Raditz got back he punch him right on his precious nose.

He wouldn't of course. And if he punched Zarbon the most he would get in reply would be a howl of laughter as his fist bounced off of him, which would only humiliate Raditz further. Not to mention he could hardly admit he had trouble, lest he endure the mocking of Nappa and Vegeta. He clenched his fist. Damn them. Weren't they all in this together? Why did they keep picking on him then? Typical bullies, all of them, always kicking at the people beneath them.

This was obviously why he was diverted from his original path from Frieza planet 63. He'd be damned if he turned up looking badly injured from what was meant to be a routine and easy assignment. Of course, the stupid pod had then developed a fault, probably as a result of getting hit by the assigned planet's defences. He had only just managed to correct it, when he found himself faced with crash landing on this desolate rock, out in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of nowhere.

"Do you want food?"

"Huh?" Raditz's head snapped up. He realised, now, that he had zoned out and followed the girl automatically into the kitchen. She was looking up at him with a slightly quizzical look. "Sorry what did you say?"

"I said," the girl began, with exaggerated exasperation, letting him know that this was not the first time she was repeating her question, "do you want food?"

"Of course! Uh… that is… if you've got some to spare."

"Well… I've got the remains of my food. It's not much and a little cold now, but I could do you something more if you wanted."

Raditz looked at her plate of food. It wasn't much and his stomach hurt. But he didn't want to deprive her of all the food in the house or make too much for her. Quieting his Saiyan urges he smiled at the girl. "That'll be fine, thank you," he said. "You just work on finding the medical stuff for me." At those words he suddenly became conscious that he must have been bleeding onto the floor. He looked down, blushing, and then blinked. He turned his head and looked behind him.

No bloodstains.

That isn't… possible… He knew he was bleeding out, he had to be. So where had the stains gone?

"Is this okay?"

He looked up. The little girl had manoeuvred a chair over to a cabinet side and was standing on top of it. In her hand she held up some bandages and what looked like a spray of some sort. "This is all the medical stuff we have," the girl said. "I hope it will be enough for you."

Raditz took the spray bottle and glanced over it. He held it over a cut on his arm and sprayed it. It stung. Badly. He grimaced and then looked down at his hand. The cut on it had stopped bleeding and the skin looked like it was beginning to heal over. He grinned at the girl. "This will be perfect."

The girl smiled brightly and hopped down from the chair. Raditz seated himself at the table, in front of the food, and carefully administered the spray to his other body parts, taking off his battered and broken armour first. It had the same effect, though the pain was more intense the greater the damage was. After he had done this he carefully wrapped the bandages over the wounds and the girl supplied a pin with which to hold it together. Satisfied that his body was not going to fall apart, Raditz nodded his approval and began to eat the food, whilst silently attempting to calculate how much his power would increase by.

"This is really good," he said after a moment, through a stuffed mouth. He meant it as well. It was good. And not just in comparison with the gloop they normally got served by the canteen.

"I cooked it myself!" the girl declared with pride.

"That's… incredible…" Raditz frowned a little and glanced down at his food. "So where's your mom and dad?" he asked, eating some more.

The girl shrugged. "I don't know. They've gone."

"Gone?"

She nodded.

"And that doesn't bother you?"

"Should it?" She cocked her head. "Everyone else has gone too."

"Everyone else?"

"There used to be people who'd come by. Neighbours and people. They'd say things to me. Call me names. Throw stones at me. That's how I'd often get hurt. But I always had that spray to heal me."

"Throw stones at you?" Now he was even more puzzled. "Why would they do that?"

The girl shrugged. "They'd call me a demon child." She puffed her cheeks a little. Then shook her head. "I don't understand people. I never did them any wrong, I just tried to be friendly."

"And what happened to them?"

"I don't know. One day they just stopped turning up."

"And you never wondered?"

"Why would I? They didn't like me and I didn't like them."

"What about your parents?"

She shrugged and kept her mouth shut.

Strange… and stranger… Raditz ate some more of the food. Just what is going on in the place?

"Do you have parents?" she asked suddenly.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I do. That is… I did."

"You did?"

"They're all gone now. Dead. They were killed. An accident a asteroid slammed into my home planet and killed them all." He sat back in his chair a little and was silent for a moment. "Mom, Dad… even my little brother… There's only three of us left now, that is my people."

The little girl snorted and looked down. Raditz narrowed his eyes. She giggled.

"What's so funny?" he asked, voice terse.

"Your people got killed by an asteroid," she said, holding back laughter.

"Listen kid I'd shut up if I were you," Raditz growled. "I've killed people younger than you and I won't have many compunctions about doing it again."

The girl's head snapped up. She stared into Raditz's eyes and then recoiled a little in fear. She sniffed and dropped her head. "I'm sorry," she said. "I… I just thought it was funny that… that a race of people who can travel in ships, across space, got caught out by an asteroid… I mean, wouldn't they have seen it coming?"

Raditz glared at the girl. Then his expression softened and he sat back. He had to admit, it was a question that had occurred to him often. Unfortunately one didn't ask awkward questions of Frieza, not if they had any sense. And Raditz had had quite a lot beaten into him over the years.

"I don't know," he said after a moment. "But they didn't and they're gone."

"…Sorry…"

"It was years ago now, I don't think on it much. Besides, I hated my father."

The girl sniffed some more.

"What are you crying for you big baby?" Raditz said.

"You're being mean!" the girl cried. "And I'm not a baby!"

"Yes you are. Baby, baby," he teased, in a cooing tone, watching her grow frustrated at his remarks.

"I am not!" she screamed.

Suddenly Raditz's scouter bleeped - a warning.

"What the -?" he tapped at the scouter.

_1,000-_

That was as strong as him! "But that's not possible!" he breathed, tapping the scouter to find out where it was. "There's nobody on this place except…" The scouter locked in - on the girl. Raditz's eyes widened. But that wasn't possible! Her power level was seven. It had to be broken!

"Are you okay?" the girl asked, her frustration gone, replaced by curiosity. "You look panicked."

Raditz tapped at the scouter. It locked onto the girl:

_7-_

He sighed. Stupid thing. "It's just this piece of machinery," he said, pointing at the scouter. "It screws up sometimes. Almost gave me a heart attack."

"Oh? What does it do?"

"Reads 'battle power'," he said. "It gives a reading of someone's strength and allows for a numerical comparison of opponents." He paused. "Supposedly. Half the time I think it's just making it up as it goes along."

The girl laughed. Raditz smiled a little and finished the food. It was good and surprisingly filling. But he suspected that he would need more. He had to be on his way, or else he'd be getting into trouble. Besides, he still didn't much like the house. There was something off about it, from what he'd already seen, and he didn't want to see much more of it.

He stood up. The girl looked up at him. "Thank you for your hospitality," he said. "But I have to be on my way."

"Don't go," she said. "I haven't talked with anyone in ages."

"I have to."

"But… But… I haven't shown you the thing yet."

"What thing?"

"The black hole. In the basement." She cocked her head.

Raditz's eyes widened. "That isn't possible."

"Yes it is," she said, a hint of triumph in her voice at having kept his attention. "I'll show you."

She hopped off her chair and walked out of the kitchen.

"No, it really isn't," Raditz said, following her. "If there was a black hole down there, this whole planet, not just this house, would be gone. Unless we're on the event horizon, which also isn't possible because my ship and my scouter would have alerted me to that fact." He followed her along the corridor, the wood creaking as he walked, passing through the shadows separated by the dim light. She hauled open a door, beneath a staircase, and walked down a narrow set of stairs. Raditz hunched himself and followed after her. The corridor was pitch-black and Raditz turned on the light of his scouter, so that he could see the girl in front of him.

"What is with this place?" he wondered aloud.

"Huh?" the girl replied.

"This place. This house is really old, and I mean really. The wood is being eaten away at, but it stands. The dust is everywhere. And more to the point my…" He paused. The girl seemed utterly oblivious to the nature of the house around her and he didn't want to completely freak her out by saying that his trail of blood had disappeared.

"My what?" she asked.

"My scouter isn't picking up any life signs on the whole planet, apart from you and me," he said.

"So? I thought you said that thing made it up as it went along?"

"Yes but…"

They reached the bottom of the stairs and the girl turned right into another small corridor. Raditz followed her to a small door.

"But what?" she asked.

"Nothing. Just wondering where the food came from."

The girl shrugged. "I don't know. It's there."

He raised an eyebrow at her and then looked up. "Is this it?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Behind here is the black hole?"

She nodded again.

"Okay then…" He stepped forward and reached out with his right hand. He nudged the door with his finger and it swung open. The room was dark. Dark except for twenty-eight white lights, twinkling brightly in the corner of the room. Raditz frowned at them and stepped forward.

"Be careful!" the girl shrieked, gripping onto his leg. "It's dangerous."

"I'm okay," Raditz replied, putting his hand on her head. He stepped forward a bit more and looked around the room. He fumbled his hand along the wall next to the doorframe and found a switch. He flipped it and the low level light came on. It illuminated the room, which was small and bare. Except for one corner. In that corner an intense darkness sat, seeming to draw the light to it, so it shone brighter at its extremities. The only thing coming from within the darkness was the twenty-eight white lights. "That's… strange…" Raditz stepped forward, pushing the girl back. She clung to the side of the door, sweating a little.

He crept forward. He didn't feel any increase in gravity as he got closer, nor did his scouter give off any warnings. He got closer… and closer… and closer… he was now only a few steps away from the mass of darkness, with the white lights in it. He reached out with his hand…

"Don't -!" the girl cried.

His fingers brushed against the darkness. It felt… solid… and cold, colder than anything he'd felt before…

"Kakarott…" a voice said, floating around the room.

"What?" Raditz's head snapped. That name… that was his brother's name. But what…?

Suddenly images assaulted his eyes. There was his brother, a baby, crying and fighting against the grip of an elderly man - his brother, older now, staring at a gold ball on a mantel piece - fighting against an army - leaping forward, a red light blazing around him against… Frieza?

Raditz stumbled backwards and fell onto the ground. The images ceased. He panted and stared at the darkness. Then he looked up and over his shoulder. The girl was there, crouched down, her knees pulled up to her chin, her arms hugging her legs. She looked up and stared at Raditz.

"Where were you?" she whispered.

"What?

"You disappeared… You were gone for hours…" She turned her head to the side. "You left me…"

"But… how…?" He glanced back at the mass of darkness. "I was here, for only a few seconds, I…" He thought on what had happened. He had heard a voice, had seen things. His younger brother, he must have been the hair was identical to his father's, living, alive and… challenging Frieza? It didn't seem possible… and yet…

He stepped back from the darkness. If he wasn't sure before he was now. He had to get out of this place. This place… it was more than strange. And he felt that its behaviour, its strangeness, had a lot to do with the mass of darkness that he was looking at now. Whatever it was it was not a black hole. It was something else. Something more…

But that vision. He couldn't get it out of his head. And somehow he thought it was true. Somehow, he felt it had to be.

He turned and started towards the door.

"Where are you going?" the little girl said, jumping to her feet as Raditz walked past her. She pursued him along the corridor and up the stairs. "Where are you going? Talk to me! Answer me!"

"I'm going to find my brother," Raditz said, stopping at the top of the stairs. "I saw a vision. They… showed me that he was alive. And more than that…" He paused and then carried on along the corridor.

"But… but you'll go without me… you'll leave me…"

"I have to. There's no extra room in the pod, not in this one."

He needed to report in as well. He had to tell Vegeta and Nappa about this. Though he felt he'd keep the whole of the vision to himself… that would sound ludicrous…

"Leave me alone… here…"

_Blip… blip… blip…_

He'd make something up; perhaps even allow them to think it was weakness that he was doing this. Something about needing help to attack a planet…

"Don't… Don't go…"

_Blip… blip… blip…_

The records, he would be able to get them from the database. If Kakarott had left on a pod then he'd be able to find the records. He seemed to recall that he had had a weak power, or so he'd been told, so he would have been sent to a planet with low power levels.

"Stay with me… Don't be like the others… don't leave me…"

_Blip… Blip… Blip…_

Raditz snapped out of his thought process. He had stepped through the front door. And he now noticed that his scouter was making noises. That dull blipping sound. Annoyed he tapped it to find out what was wrong.

_10,000^_

His eyes popped. Where had that…!?

Slowly he turned around. Behind him was the girl. Crying, looking down at her feet, mumbling to herself. The scouter locked onto her, the source of the power. Which kept rising.

"Go then…" the girl snuffled. "Be like the others. Leave me all alone. Like my parents. Like the neighbour… think of me like them…"

_20,000^_

Raditz took a step back.

"Listen… listen to me…" he said, voice shaky. "This place… is doing something to you, that thing downstairs is… I need you to listen to me…"

She shook her head.

_40,000^_

"You're a liar…" the girl growled. "I hate you! I wish you'd never come here!"

"What are you?"

"Go away!" The girl raised her head as she screamed at him, her eyes narrowed tight and her fists balled.

The scouter screeched and then cut out.

Raditz trembled. Silently, at the back of his mind, he was thankful for the circuit breaker he had installed on the machine, otherwise his eye could have been gone as it overloaded. But at the forefront of his mind was his concern with the power output reading, the last one he'd seen before the machine cut out.

_600,000^_

The kid was more powerful than Frieza. And still rising.

"Listen to me…" Raditz began, his voice shaking a little. He struggled to get it under control. He took a few steps forward. "I'm going to get you out of this place… But I can't right now, I can tell you that. But I can get you out of here."

The girl looked at him. Her eyes started to calm.

"I need to go find my brother. And after I've got him I can come back here and I will get you." Raditz looked down at her, bending his body lower so that he was almost level with her. "I don't know what's going on here and I don't know what that thing is in your basement. But your parents didn't leave you, not intentionally. And the neighbours didn't go away on their own either. Nor did all life on this planet just disappear. Something is going on. And I will take you away from this."

"Do you… do you promise…?" She looked at him, with a mix of hope and distrust. She wanted to believe but at the same time…

Though he wasn't well practiced in it, Raditz gave her a warm smile. "I promise. As soon as I've got my brother, I'll be back here to get you."

She stared into his eyes. And then she smiled. Happy now.

"I'll be waiting," she said. "I'll be sitting right here and waiting."

Raditz scrunched her hair and stepped back.

"Soon, I'll be back soon."

He nodded at her. She smiled back and sat on the front step.

"I hope you manage to find your brother," she said. "Maybe your other family is still out there. Maybe mine is too!"

"Perhaps," he replied. "We can always hope."

She smiled to herself, content.

Raditz made his way down the path. He clambered over the lip of the crater and then stepped into his pod. He sat back in it and typed in the commands. The pod door closed and the thrusters powered on. The pod began to levitate off of the ground. The little girl looked up, following the slow rise of the pod. She thought she could see him, through the view port of the pod. She waved at him.

Then the pod thundered upwards, streaking into the dark sky above.

The little girl sat back and drew her legs up to her body. She rested her chin on her knees.

And she waited.

* * *

_So here we are again._

_Hello everyone and welcome to Dragon Ball XVI. The follow-on to Dragon Ball XV. Now I wasn't sure about doing this, but eventually decided 'what the hell' and went for it. The idea was kicking around and wouldn't go away. Hence the stinger at the end of XV._

_For the uninitiated - XVI can be read without having read XV (there'll be a synopsis of the events there at the start of the first proper chapter - i.e. the next one) and this prologue contains no information that needed to be known from the previous story. Whatever your reason for popping along to this story, know that you are very welcome and I hope you enjoy it!_

_This prologue doesn't have much to do with the story description. But it will do, eventually. There's some important ground information being introduced here (to which I will say nothing other than the number of lights is specified for a reason) - even if it does look like the story of an out-of-character Raditz finding himself in an Edgar Allen Poe mystery ;)_

_Obviously Raditz never makes it back, this takes place about a week before his fateful trip to Earth. (Incidentally how did he ever find out that Goku was alive in canon?)_

_Just in case it wasn't clear, the '-' and '^' symbols on the scouter represent a stable power level and a rising one respectively. Scouters overload on the basis of a rapid increase in power, not on the actual scale of the power itself, so Raditz or anyone else being able to read Frieza's power level (when he's not powering up) works that way._

_Update wise there will probably be one at the end of this month, to kick things off, and after that it'll likely be once a month (due to real life commitments and another project I'm working on)._

_A final note of caution: this is currently a 'T' rating, but it may be getting bumped up. This could well get pretty dark and it's going to go outside the bounds of a conventional DBZ story (much more so than XV did). So, yeah, fair warning in advance._

_Other than that, it leaves me to say thank you all, as ever, for reading and reviewing (I hope!) and that I hope you enjoy story to come!_


	2. Episode One: The Shadow Dragons

**Synopsis of Dragon Ball XV**

* * *

Fifteen years after the events of Dragon Ball Z, our heroes are now suffering from the mental and physical struggles of old age. In particular Goku and Vegeta are dealing with the problem of advanced aging. Saiyans being a warrior race have an extended youthful period, but the consequence of this is that past a certain age they begin to age much more rapidly than an ordinary human would.

Despite this, those fifteen years have been of a peaceful nature. Trunks is engaged to Estella, an employee of Capsule Corp. whilst Gohan is now a world-renowend physicist. Whilst at a conference Gohan learns of the destruction of planet Namek. Not suspecting that anything is wrong he informs the others of what is taken to be a great personal tragedy for them. Piccolo, however, voices some concern about the extent to which it was a natural phenomenon.

Meanwhile two aliens land on the planet and are confronted by Trunks and Goten. After a short battle the lead alien is revealed to be Kuriza, the long lost and estranged son of Frieza. Kuriza tells the Z-fighters of a threat facing the galaxy, that warriors with a symbol affixed to them are attacking worlds under the Planet Trade Oraganization's protection. He draws this symbol and the Z-fighters recognise it as the symbol of Babidi - the Majin.

Observing this from Otherworld the Elder Kai is greatly disturbed by what this means. Before he can inform Kibitokai of his thoughts, though, he is confronted by Majin Maladie, the leader of the Majin. Once, long ago, the Kais and the Majin had been competitors in the galaxy. A splinter group of the Kai's had genocided the Majin and Maladie had hidden a few members of this people away. Now they were back to seek revenge. Maladie kills the Elder Kai and then strikes him again, when he has died. Before the Elder Kai's body can disappear he tells Kibitokai to seek out the secret history.

The Z-fighters head out with Kuriza to confront the Majin, especially upon learning that they were responsible for the destruction of Namek. They have, however, fallen into a trap. Kuriza is under Majin control and they are confronted by one of the Majin, named Feles, on a distant planet. Though they defeat Feles, they are attacked by Kuriza's flagship - which is really controlled by the Majin Excidium and Instans. The ship then leaves. Meanwhile Earth falls under the attack of the Majin. Pan and Uub head out to fight them, however Uub and Pan are both defeated, and Maladie's plan is revealed. He extracts the Buu from Uub's body and intends to fuse himself with it, creating the ultimate warrior. Uub is left in shock at the loss of his powers, and at the revelation that he was once the evil Buu.

The Z-fighters return to Earth and attack the Majin. Goku is confronted with Pan, under the spell of the Majin and, with great difficulty defeats her. Vegeta battles and narrowly wins against Kuriza, as Yamcha, Piccolo, Tien and Krillin just manage to defeat Instans, though it comes at the sacrifice of Eighteen, devastating Krillin. as Goten and Trunks, fused into Gotenks, defeat a Majin who controls Frieza and Cell, killing Cell during the conflict. Frieza reveals himself to have never been under the Majin's control, but his attack on the now defused Trunks and Goten is halted by the arrival of Kuriza. Seeing his son for the first time in his life seems to spark something in Frieza and, rather than fight, he kills himself, emotionally scarring Kuriza.

Gohan defeats Majin Excidium, but is unable to overcome Maladie, now that he has fused with Buu. Kibitokai learns of the history of his people and seeks out the aide of Dabura, who establish what Maladie's plan is. The Otherworld is not, in fact, a heavenly realm but is constructed by taking half of the galaxy out of sync with the rest of it. Maladie's plan is to pull the Otherworld back into sync, but the consequences of that would be the destruction of most of the galaxy. Maladie puts his plan into action, attempting to reverse the spell that put Otherworld and the Earth realm out of sync. To stop him Kibitokai and Dabura call on the aide of all of Otherworld, including those in Hell, to use their energy to repel Maladie's attempt. They are successful. In the ensuing confusion of celebrations, Cooler murders his father and escapes.

Vegeta and Goku, healed by Dende, join up to confront Maladie and successfully fuse to form Gogeta. After a brutal battle, they narrowly triumph, saving the galaxy.

Six months pass and Trunks marries Estella. Meanwhile an organization calling themselves the Shadow Dragons murder a kidnapped woman, whilst taunting the Z-fighters about their inability to save her...

* * *

**Dragon Ball XVI: Part I  
**

Episode One

_The Shadow Dragons_

* * *

The phone was picked up on the third ring.

"Hello," the woman at the other end answered. "Commander Fox's office?"

"This is Agent Miles," the man on the phone said. He was dressed casually, a shirt and jeans, with sunglasses resting on his forehead. He looked like what someone would imagine a spy to look like, rather than an actual one. "Patch me through to Fox please."

"One second," the secretary said. He was on hold for a moment, then the phone was picked up again.

"Fox," a gruff voice said.

"Commander, it's Agent Miles." Miles looked over his shoulder and nodded towards the soldiers that were accompanying him, about five in total, with a sixth figure amongst them. They stepped forward, two of them carrying boxes. In front of them was a three carriage bullet train, in a largely deserted area. The transport for the exclusive use of the King's secret service. "We've been successful in our task."

"You acquired the dragon ball?"

"Yes sir, with two glittering star on it."

"And the energy pod from Pod Corporation?"

"That too."

"Excellent, you'd done well." There was a short pause. "Your train should arrive in the West City in two hours. Report to me as soon as you arrive."

"Yes sir. Will there be any chance of a bonus, sir?"

"A bonus?" Fox growled. "Don't get above yourself, Miles. You've done very well in accomplishing your task, but it was a task you are paid to do."

"Not disrespect meant, sir," Miles said casually. "I just thought that capturing the leader of the Shadow Dragons would be worth a bonus."

Silence.

"What?"

"The leader of the Shadow Dragons, we captured him whilst we were at Pod Corp. He was trying to do something, probably something terrorist like, you know how they are."

Another silence.

"I'll meet you at the station," Fox said. Then he hung up.

Miles took the phone down and grinned at it. That promotion was as good as his. No more of this crawling around in the dirt, he'd have a proper desk job. He turned around and looked at the three remaining soldiers, and the figure that stood in their midst.

Omega, leader of the Shadow Dragons. He looked ordinary, dressed in jeans and an open jacket over a shirt. The only unusual thing about him was the paper mask that was plastered over his face, which had a cartoon drawing of a happy, grinning white dragon on it. Only his mouth, chin and eyes were visible.

"All aboard boys!" Miles called and the soldiers pushed Omega onto the train, with Miles brining up the rear. They stepped along into the first carriage, where Omega was pushed into his chair, and a soldier stood next to him, keeping his gun pointed at him. The other soldiers sat down in the carriage, slumping happily into the plush red seats. The carriage was large and had an array of seats in it, with tables in each one. Lights lined the upper part and laptops were stationed on every other desk.

Miles stepped along the carriage and towards the back. He picked up the intercom and pressed the top of it.

"Mr Bancroft?" he said. "We're ready here, please set the train on its way when you're ready."

"Of course, sir," Bancroft replied. "We'll be on our way in two minutes."

Miles put the receiver back in its place and walked back along the carriage. He stepped over to one of the soldiers who had carried a box. "Is the cargo secure?" he asked.

"Yes sir," the soldier replied. "They're both in storage, in the back, in padded cases. No damage will come to them."

"Good. We don't know how fragile this dragon ball thing is, and god alone knows what will happen if that capsule isn't as stable as Pod Corp. have assured us…" Miles stepped forward and then slumped into his seat, opposite Omega. He smiled at the Shadow Dragon. "And how are you doing?" he asked, in a mock pleasant voice. "Enjoying the comforts of the King's train?"

Omega did not reply.

The train shudder, jolted, and then began to move. The scenery outside, an expanse of green with some rocky plateaus, began to swing by faster and faster until the nearest objects became nothing but a blur.

"About two hours of journey time," Miles said. "Then we'll be greeted by Commander Fox and host of intelligence operatives. All for you," he nodded at Omega. "Does that make you happy? All this attention?"

No reply.

Miles shook his head and waved his hand. "Ah, what does it matter whether you talk to me now or not. Later you'll squeal. Once we get out the pliers and start pulling out your fingernails, then you'll tell us whatever we want to hear. Tough, silent guys like you always do that."

"Or perhaps you will."

Miles blinked. Omega had spoken. His voice as gravelly, but soft at the same time. A chill feeling to it. His voice seemed to carry a presence with it. Miles found that it made him uneasy. Now that he thought about it that was the first time that Omega had spoken, in the entire time that he'd been there. He had been noticed on the security systems of Pod Corporation, when they had quickly apprehended him. He had been silent when arrested and silent during the whole journey.

Don't let it get to you.

Miles smirked. "You're talking nonsense. We caught you in the act. No idea what you were doing there, trying to blow stuff up probably, knowing how original you are."

"Perhaps, or perhaps not."

Omega turned his head and looked out the window at the passing scenery.

Outside the train rumbled along the tracks. They arrived at a set of points, which snapped, turning the train from its original track onto one that curved and went northwards.

"Well, either way," Miles continued. "You're going to a world of hurt now. And, thanks to you, I'm going to one heck of a promotion."

"Oh I don't think any of us really know where we're going." Omega looked at Miles and smiled. "We can only hope that we're on the right tracks."

He wasn't sure if it was his smile, which was downright unsettling, or his emphasis on the word tracks, but Miles' confidence was suddenly beginning to slip. For some reason, he was having the horrible thought that he wasn't as in control of this situation as he should be. The other soldiers seemed to be thinking the same, as they were all nervously fiddling their guns.

Miles stood up. He didn't want to give Omega the impression that he had unnerved him, but damn it. He was unnerved. He was pretty sure that Omega was bluffing, just trying to get in one last spark of revenge in by making him look sheepish, but safety first. There was precious cargo on board and he had to ensure that it was safe.

He grabbed the intercom and phoned through. "Mr Bancroft," he said.

"Yes sir."

"Are we proceeding in the correct direction?"

"I'm sorry?" Mr Bancroft asked, confused.

"Are we proceeding in the correct direction?"

"Uh, of course sir. It's a train, if we're on the tracks we can't…" There was silence on the intercom. "Shit!"

"What?" Miles felt his heart skip a beat.

"We're changed tracks! I don't know how, I mean there were some points back there, but they should have stayed as they were! There was no scheduled change and nobody there…!"

"Now hold on, calm down! What does this mean for us?"

"Nothing, well nothing important. It just means that we're having to take a longer route. I'll have to phone through to get us back on the correct path."

Miles sighed. Nothing major.

There was a slight increase in rumbling. And a chocked yell came over the intercom.

"What? What's going on!?"

"There's - there's another train - heading right for - sh -!"

The rest was lost in an eruption of sound and movement, as Miles found him jettisoned into the roof. The King's train slammed into another train, a commercial one heading in the opposite direction, and jack knifed, sending the backmost carriage spinning out to the side. The commercial train, was crushed against the superior armour and speed of the bullet train, the first few carriages being smashed to pieces. The back most ones juddered up and crashed off of the track, in a flail of steel, glass and bodies. The momentum of the two utterly halted.

Inside the ruins of bullet train, Miles clambered to his feet. The chairs and steel works had blown across the room. The tables and floor were smashed, as was a whole side of the train. Sparks flew from the exposed wires of the lights and other smashed electronics. Wind blew in from the outside and Miles staggered, blood pouring down the back of his head.

He turned his head and through his dazed vision he found himself staring into the eyes of a cartoon dragon. Fear gripped his whole body as his eyes widened. Suddenly he felt a pressure on his throat and he found himself being lifted into the air, so that he now looked down at Omega. He flailed with his hands, but nothing was gripping his throat. Nothing concrete. He saw that both Omega's hands were at his side. Behind him all the soldiers were dead, some killed in the crash. The rest: slaughtered.

"What… the hell…" Miles gasped.

"Were you honestly so arrogant that you thought I was just slip into your hands that way?" Omega said.

"You… planned this…?"

"Partially. I had need of what Pod Corporation were making, so I went to acquire it. When I learned that you had a dragon ball, I decided to kill two birds with one stone."

"You know… about them?"

"Of course."

"Then… why did you… why…?"

"Your death and this train crash will send a very effective message to the King and his men."

Miles eyes began to glaze, the pressure on his throat tightened. He chocked and dribble ran from his lips.

"What… What are…?"

"I am Omega. The end of all things." The Shadow Dragon cocked his head. "Enjoy your promotion Agent Miles. But where you're going, I suspect it won't mean much to you."

"Fuck… y -"

His throat caved in on itself. Blood squirted from the cracks and his eyes rolled back in his head. His body dropped to the ground and writhed for a moment. Then he lay still.

"Apologies, but I abhor vulgarity." Omega stepped away from the body and back through the ruins of the carriage. He stopped by the soldier Miles had talked to. This one was slumped forward, his body embedded in the table in front of him. He rummaged in his pocket until he found a set of keys. He went to the back of the carriage and hopped out the back of it and then moved over to the overturned carriage. He stepped through the door, on its side and walked along the broken glass of the windows. Inside, secured on a table pointing horizontally to his right, were the two boxes. He inserted the keys onto the lock of the table and removed both boxes from their secure holding. He opened the first one and found a small, rectangular box inside it. He closed that and then opened the second one. Inside was a golden ball, with two stars at the centre of it.

"Excellent," Omega said. Then he shoved both boxes under his arm and stepped out of the carriage. He crossed the field, ignoring the screams of the maimed passengers from the other train. He went to a plateau and walked around behind it. There he found a white, streamlined bike with two large wheels at either end of it. Blue lights pulsed from the lower regions of the bike. On top of the bike was sat a woman, with a paper mask over her face. The paper mask was red and depicted an angry cartoon dragon.

"Were you successful?" the woman asked.

"Of course, Delta," Omega said. He indicated the two boxes. "I always succeed."

"Congratulations."

Omega clambered onto the back of the bike. He reached down and touched the side of it and a compartment opened out. He placed the two boxes inside. Then he sat back as Delta revved the engines. The bike streaked away, a sonic boom exploding behind it, the blue neon light hanging in the air a moment, before it vanished.

* * *

"…And that, roughly, is why the cat inside the box would be both dead and alive until the box was opened." Son Gohan turned away from the diagram on his blackboard and faced the large class of undergraduate students, about two hundred. This was their introduction to Quantum Physics, a module that formed part of the major in physics at the university. It was the busiest that Gohan had ever seen it. He adjusted the microphone that was strapped to his face, ensuring that all the students could hear him at all times. "So what does this mean? Apart from some very annoyed animal rights activists?"

The class chuckled.

"Basically this is serving as an analogy for what happens at the atomic and subatomic level itself. When you fire a beam of light, at a sheet, until you measure the result, the light is in a state of indeterminacy. When you measure it, that state collapses and the light becomes either a particle or a wave, depending on the type of measurement you make. What's important to take from this is that the light is not either a particle or a wave, it is both. Until it's measured, at which point the type of measurement will determine whether it becomes a wave or a particle. And if that's confusing you, good - because if you understand this stuff, then you haven't understood it."

More chuckles.

"So, next week we'll cover interpretations of this that attempt to explain what is going on; the observer-dependent thesis, the pilot-wave theory and the theory of multiple worlds. After that we'll move on to looking at what might be behind this, namely the uncertainty principle."

There were nods around the classroom.

Gohan glanced at his watch. About five minutes left to go.

He looked up. "There's about five minutes left. Does anyone have any questions?"

Immediately every hand shot into the air.

Gohan closed his eyes and let out a long-suffering sigh. He scratched the back of his head and then opened his eyes and looked up to the class. "Okay… Allow me to rephrase that… does anyone have any questions that relate to the lecture or to the course?"

Slowly, reluctantly, the majority of the hands went down until there was only about three left.

"Excellent," Gohan muttered. He pointed at one of the students in the front row, a boy with short blonde hair. "What's your name?"

"Nick, sir," the boy said.

"Just Gohan is fine Nick." The class laughed.

"Uh, of course, sir, Gohan, professor," he stuttered. The class laughed again and he composed himself. "I uh… have two questions actually."

"Go on." Gohan seated himself on his desk and crossed his right arm over his chest. He knew what was coming, but he may as well get it over with.

"First, I just wanted to check on the course structure. Because we have to do this module and the module of relativity and then it says the last class is like, one huge class that on at the same time for both?"

"Yes," Gohan said. "Basically, as will become apparent, quantum physics and relativity conflict on quite a few points. That last, mega class, is where I and Dr Stout will go over the issues where they conflict and theories that attempt to solve these problems."

"Oh, okay. Thank you." He licked his lips and twirled his thumbs. "Um… the second question… It's not… wholly relevant…but…" He paused.

"Go on," Gohan nodded with a small smile.

"Is it… is it…" He took a deep breath. "Is it true that you killed Cell when you were twelve years old?" he almost whispered.

The whole class lent forward in excitement.

"No, that is not true," Gohan said.

The whole class sat back, with sighs of disappointment.

"I was ten."

The class exploded into an arena of noise.

"Professor Gohan!" -

- "Sir, is it -" -

- "Are you really an alien?" -

- "How did you lose your arm?" -

- "Is it true you can destroy mountains?" -

- "Can you teach me to fly?" -

- "What are -" -

Gohan raised his hand. The class fell to silence. He had an amused smile on his face. "Okay, most of those questions I'm not going to answer as they are quite personal. All I'll say on the matter is that yes, I was involved in the incident that took place in West City last year, yes I am a half-alien on my father's side and no, you don't have anything to fear from me. That is all. I'm afraid, after that, you'll have to stick to the many illuminating rumours you can find on the Internet."

The class chuckled, but there were some frustrated undertones to it.

He glanced at his watch again. "And that is the end of the class. I'll see you all next week and please make sure you do the readings for the next class and for your tutorials."

Slowly, in a bustle, the students made their way out, a few of them stopping to ask for Gohan's autograph, or asking what his office hours were. Gohan suspected he'd get a lot of people calling on him with questions of no relevance to the subject. But, it had been like that for a while now. Ever since that… that… person had uploaded footage of them attacking the Majin ship.

Finally everyone had filed out of the room. Except for one. A girl with blue hair, who was sat off to the side in the middle of the class room. Gohan looked up at her. "Hey," he called.

There was no answer.

He felt her ki and found that she was… anxious… agitated a little. Frowning Gohan stepped forward, moving up the stairs a little and called again.

"Hey."

She looked up.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Uh… yes, sorry, I was just… spacing out…" she replied, standing up and gathering her things.

"It's all right. First day, it can be a little confusing. I'm not the best teacher in the world." He laughed.

"No, no your teaching was fine, excellent, actually. I understood all of it. I mean… sorry I'm babbling…" She chuckled to herself and arranged her bag. A downcast look crossed her face.

"Are you sure you're okay? You look a little… upset about something."

"Well… it's just…" She looked up at Gohan. "I didn't… believe things… you know about all of that, what happened and your involvement and everything. I thought it was just… tricks and things… I swear I'm like the only person on this course who's here to learn physics…"

Gohan laughed. "You're probably right."

"But it is true… what you said and that… that makes me ask…" She looked at him. "Why?"

Gohan looked confused. "Why? Why what?"

"Why haven't you stopped the Shadow Dragons?"

Silence.

"Ah…" Gohan said. "It's well…"

"I mean, it's all true? You can sense energy?"

"Yes, yes I can…"

"So why haven't you?" She looked at him. Her eyes began to water.

"Are you…?"

"It's just… my cousin was… one of them…"

"Oh God… I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, it was a few months ago now. It just wasn't nice, you know… Seeing him say his name on camera, on the Internet, with millions of other people seeing it and begging, hoping and praying that someone would save him and then… his brains… got splattered on the wall behind him." Tears flowed freely now. She took a deep breath and wiped them away. "God I'm sorry, I don't say this to you, I'm sure you had good reasons for not doing anything but…"

"No, it's fine, it's…" Gohan sat down beside her. The girl sat herself back down as well. "It's not that I don't want to stop them, I do. It's finding them that's difficult."

"But they said…"

"I know what they said. I can sense energy, that is true. If I extend my senses I can tell you right now that Dr Stour is feeling agitated, probably because his latest attempts to prove mathematically that cold fusion is a workable thing are not working, whilst Dr Bleach and his secretary are both feeling _very _excited. Whilst they're in the same room. And you can make of that what you will."

The girl giggled a little.

"But the thing is, I can find them because I know them. I can recognise their signature, that is their ki signature. So I can find them like that. I don't know Omega," Gohan noticed that she flinched at the name, "and his cohorts. I don't know their signature. Even if I did, finding them would be the equivalent of attempting to find a specific needle, in a box of needles, surrounded by a million other boxes of needles, that are all at the bottom of the ocean."

The girl stared at him.

"And that's why I haven't found them, and I haven't been able to do anything about it. But believe me, it is not for lack of trying."

The girl nodded and smiled at him. "Thank you. Thank you for telling me that. And I'm sorry if it sounded like I was accusing you."

"No problem. No offence is taking. Were I in your position I would have done the same."

She smiled again. "Well, I need to get to my next class, or else my teacher is going to flip," she said, standing up. Gohan stood up to let her out and she stepped down the stairs. "See you next week," she called.

"Yep. What's your name by the way?" Gohan asked.

"Mariah," she replied and smiled at him.

"See you next week, Mariah," Gohan smiled back at her.

She stepped out of the classroom and made her way down the corridor.

Gohan sat back down and put his hand to his head. He rubbed his eyes and sighed, frowning.

* * *

Kuriza, President of the Interplanetary Federation, let out a sigh as he took his seat in the centre of the arena on his flagship the _Frieza Cold_. The expanse of the area was huge, a mass of metal floor that was, for the moment, uninhabited. This was the location for the senate. A holographic field would activate, when the meeting took place that would allow all senators to speak to one another from their home worlds. That solved a possible problem of senators being too distant from their home worlds, as well as arguments over which world should house the parliament. It was a long process, restructuring the Interplanetary Trade Organization into a Federation, but so far it was going smoothly.

High Captain Miuu, a red skinned humanoid with short white hair, stood at his side and looked down at his leader and friend.

"Are you ready?" Miuu asked. He was dressed in a ceremonial armour, silver planets curving with his shoulders and down his forearms, and a cape falling down the back of it.

Kuriza, with his red gelatinous orbs, with the chestnut spike poking out the top of the one on his head, let out another sigh. His paper white face, with the two lines running from the centre of his eyes, looked haggard. He was dressed in grand robes, a mix of green, red and blue swaying together that covered him from his shoulders down. He let out another sigh.

"Is that a yes or no?"

"It's a reluctant yes," he replied.

Miuu smiled. "The meeting starts in ten seconds. Are you ready with the button?"

"Yes…"

5… 4… 3… 2… 1…

Kuriza hit the central button on the electronic panel in front of him.

Instantly the room lit up with detailed holographic projections of hundreds of people: senators from the various worlds that comprised the Interplanetary Federation. They were all seated, in various manners, depending on the type of species that they were and there was a great variety in that.

Kuriza stood up and addressed the crowd. "Welcome, all, to the weekly gathering of the President and Senators of the Federation." There was a general response to the standard opening statement. "Now, as ever, High Captain Miuu will begin by covering the basics of social statistics and economic reports. Questions to me will then be taken, with any major issues being raised at that time."

He bowed to the assembly and sat back down as Miuu stood up and gave his report. Generally the report was positive. Most of the planets were stable, socially and economically, though Tharus and Ichyon were beginning to slump, though given the volatile climates of both worlds this was not unexpected and Miuu's statement of financial support was met with minimum grumbling from the other senators. Socially a few of the outlying planets were suffering from raids from other planets, outside the Federation, as well as some having troubles at home. Kuriza knew all of this already so began to scan the room. Most of the senators of the worlds were there, but he noticed that a few were missing. Some were from the outlying worlds suffering raids, which was to be expected and they would likely meet with Kuriza later when they could. But some were not there from world's that had no problems. Kuriza mulled on this as Miuu finished up his speech.

The High Captain took some questions from the senators, before seating himself and tapping Kuriza, who stood up.

"Thank you High Captain Miuu for that report," Kuriza said. "On substansive issues I think we can all agree to the issuance of support to Tharus and Ichyon, as well as military support to Trixis, Valtaron and Yom." Murmurings of assent. "Now, what issues do the senators themselves wish to raise?"

"Senator Fra-La of Paulus," an insectoid creature, with wings and bulbous eyes declared. Kuriza tapped his screen and the senator was enlarged and centred in the holographic field.

"Speak, Senator Fra-La."

"I am sure that it has not escaped the notice of the senate that certain worlds are unrepresented here," Fra-La said, his voice chattering and high. "This is the second week that senators from Borgas, Untrivon and Kal-Tel-Ba have failed to turn up. And now Ventross has joined them."

"Yes, I am aware of this. I will communicate with them to remind them of their duties."

"This is wider than that, President Kuriza. This is a mark of disrespect to you and to this senate. Those unattending, with no given reason, should be punished."

"I do not…"

"Objection!"

Another senator's voice rang out and his hologram took to the centre alongside Fra-La. This one was a humanoid character, but with four eyes and horns.

"Senator Broge of Calmen," Kuriza said, nodding at the figure.

"With the greatest of respect," Broge said. "It is not the place of Senator Fra-La to dictate policy to you. There are, perhaps, legitimate reasons why those worlds have not represented themselves."

"What reasons would those be?" Fra-La cut in.

"Perhaps they doubt the leadership of our President and the direction of this Federation," Borge replied, glancing at Kuriza.

An explosion of noise took over the chamber as the senators shouted at one another, most opposed to the statement Borge had made, but some in support. Kuriza and Miuu scanned the room for a moment, before Kuriza stepped forward and raised his voice.

"Order! Order! Silence!" he shouted. The noise died down. "Senator Borge has made his point and offered us something to think about. He is also correct, Senator Fra-La, that it is not your place to dictate policy, though I admire and welcome your passion for the Federation."

"My apologies, President, I meant no disrespect," Fra-La said, bowing. He turned his eye harshly on Borge.

Borge shrugged. "You have mine as well. What I said were not my views, I merely communicated what I had been hearing."

"That is well, Senator Borge," Kuriza said. "Now, I will address these planets and I will remind them of their duties and what the sanctions are for failure to comply, without a legitimate reason. That matter is in my hands and will be taken no further until we hear their response."

Calls of assent issued from the chamber. The holograms of Borge and Fra-La diminished and returned to their place.

Another hologram took to the centre.

"Senator Urik of Tarh," Kuriza nodded at the senator.

"President Kuriza," Urik, a gelatinous creature, who had a thin skeleton visible through the outside shape of his body and his robes of state. "What is the status on welcoming Earth into the Federation?"

"I am meeting with their King next week to discuss the matter," Kuriza said. "But it is up to them and I have no indication of what their response will be."

"I would prefer for this matter to be decided, one way or another, soon," Urik continued. "My planet is close to theirs and I am… uncomfortable with such a powerful planet being outside the Federation so close by."

"I am aware of this, but they can't be rushed and I will not do so. Technologically Tarh has nothing to fear from them, nor militarily. You have my assurances."

"Thank you President Kuriza."

Senator Urik's hologram disappeared.

The meeting carried on with much shouting, debating, harsh words and apologies. Kuriza struggled to keep his cool, but just about managed it. He found the meetings to be largely unproductive, on key issues, but they were necessary for coordinating things. After an hour of it he found his voice was going and he had a massive headache on its way. But the meeting was winding its way down to a conclusion. Miuu tapped him on the shoulder and indicated that it was time to give the closing address.

Kuriza stood to his feet and addressed the chamber, now with no hologram in the centre of the field. "Are there any final questions before this meeting is concluded?" Kuriza asked.

As usual the senators recognised this address for what it was and kept silent. Any final questions would be brought up later, in private.

"In that case I -"

A hologram suddenly appeared in the centre of the field. Kuriza narrowed his eyes and then they widened slightly. It was Lemara, Senator of Trixis. She was humanoid, with ceremonial tattoos covering the extent of her face. Kuriza stepped forward slightly as a murmur ran around the chamber.

"Senator Lemara," Kuriza said. "We were not expecting you, given the situation at Trixis. The meeting is just concluding, but you'll be pleased to know that -"

"The situation on Trixis is stable," Lemara said. "However we have other issues. Ventross has fallen."

Another murmur swept around the chamber. Kuriza furrowed his brows. "I was not aware that Ventross was under attack from raiders…"

"It did not fall to raiders. It fell to the Planet Eater."

An explosion of noise rocked the entire chamber. Senators shouted and barracked at Kuriza, Lemara and one another. Kuriza slumped backwards, letting out a seethe of frustration and massaged his temples.

"President Kuriza!" Senator Borge shouted, taking centre of the holo-field with Lemara. "Ventross is not far from Calmen! What do you intend to do to ensure the safety of my people from this threat!?"

"I don't…"

"If you cannot ensure our safety then we would be better off outside the Federation! I cannot afford to divert resources that need to be devoted to our own safety!"

"Senator Borge… Listen…"

"Order!"

That shout came from Miuu. Silence descended on the chamber. It was rare that Miuu spoke out like that, but when he did all listened. "Senator Borge," Miuu said. "We understand your concern. But we known nothing about this Planet-Eater, or what it is. Nevertheless we will divert resources to assisting in survey the surroundings and the defences of Calmen." Senator Borge nodded. "As for the rest, if you have concerns, bring it up with us personally. For now, though, we can tell you nothing and our best recommendation is to await the return of our survey units, who are investigating the matter, and pay attention to anything unusual occurring in your systems." He turned to Lemara. "Senator Lemara, can you meet with us later to tell us what you know of Ventross?"

Senator Lemara nodded. "I will do so, High Captain Miuu."

"Thank you." Miuu surveyed the chamber. "I now declare this meeting adjourned." The senator's nodded in assent. Then the lights of their holograms winked out and the room returned to silence.

Kuriza sighed. "Thank you Miuu," he said. "That was in danger of getting out of hand."

"I know. But I can't do this all the time. It undercuts your authority. And you heard Borge, some of the senators are beginning to have doubts."

Kuriza nodded. "Yes. Borge chief among them… I might have to do what Fra-La suggested to bring some of the dissenters into line."

"And how would you do that?"

"Well… I could always blow one of their planets up."

Miuu laughed. "I'm sure your father would approve of that course of action."

Kuriza raised a small smile. Then he went back to massaging his temple. "What the heck are we going to do with this Planet Eater?" he said after a moment. "It comes out of nowhere, at random and turns an entire planet to a life-less husk of rock and dust. And it does it too fast for a communication to get out or for anyone to notice. So what the hell is it? It can't be a force of nature, there's too much randomness in what it does. But what else can it be? It doesn't strike system by system, it just goes anywhere and attacks."

"We don't know," Miuu said. "We have to wait for the survey report and what Lemara can tell us. If we can notice a common factor among the planets then perhaps we can diagnose what is happening."

"There won't be a common factor," Kuriza said bitterly. "Three planets we've lost in the last few months, all at different levels of development, and there's at least six that we've heard reported that are likely candidates for its presence before we noticed and started keeping record." He sighed. "This is a disaster if we can't get to the bottom of it soon."

"Would you like to call in additional help?"

"You mean Earth?" Kuriza thought for a moment. "No. I want them to stay out of this. This is our problem, a Federation problem, and we're the ones who need to solve it."

"As you wish."

Kuriza stood up and stepped off the podium, Miuu following him. "On which note, order the ship to begin to head to Earth, I have that meeting with the King to attend. And order someone to run me a bath, because I need it yesterday or I am going to flip."

Miuu smirked. "As his highness commands."

* * *

Bulma Briefs, president of Capsule Corporation, leant back in her chair as she answered the phone. Despite being quite old now, she still managed to look only middle-aged, with only a few wrinkles. It was fairly obvious that she was dying her short hair green, though, but no one dared say anything.

"Yes?" she said.

"A man is here to see you," the voice of her secretary said. "Baldwin, says he arranged to meet you?"

"Ah yes, yes he did. Send him in please."

Bulma put the phone back on the cradle and looked out of her office window. In the distance she could see West City, being rebuilt but still with large parts of it in ruins, or only half completed. Baldwin, she was aware, was from the King's secret services, a fairly high-ranking officer as well. It wasn't unusual for Capsule Corp. to have some of the King's functionaries dropping in on them. The company developed a lot of high tech that had strict laws around its development and use, so someone dropping by to check that they weren't going outside of prescribed limits, or planning on putting things to bad usage was not unheard off. Still Bulma was curious to know what he was here about. As far as she was aware all latest tech developments had been reported and there was nothing on there that would warrant an investigation.

The door opened and Baldwin, carrying a file and a book under his arm, entered. He was dressed in a sharp suit and looked in his forties. Balding, with a comb over and wearing glasses. He paused at the door and waved, then stopped and shut the door and walked over. "Ms Briefs," he said, holding out his hand. "A pleasure to meet you."

Bulma took his hand and smiled at him. "Likewise, Mr Baldwin. Please sit down." She gestured to a seat in front of her desk that Baldwin sat down on with a nod. "To what do I owe this pleasure?" she asked, then regretted the remark as it sounded sarcastic. "I wasn't aware that there was anything on the latest report batch that investigation?"

"There was not," Baldwin said with a smile. "And this meeting is not about that."

"Oh? So what are you here for?"

"Ms Briefs, are you aware of the state of the world?"

"Reasonably," she replied. "From what I hear there are still some rioting in East City and Satan City, and that the slums around West City are not diminishing." She shrugged. "The construction work remains unfinished and the markets are suffering from a lot of economic trouble, as a result of last years invasion. And the King is suffering his worst poll ratings in his era over his perceived inability to solve the issue quickly enough."

Baldwin coughed. "It would seem that you are more than reasonably aware of the issues."

"Thank you," Bulma beamed at him. "I try."

"Yes, you are correct that there are continuing problems. Some of the city-states are beginning to make grumblings about splitting off from the intercity league. The King is not happy about this, but off course we have run into continual problems on the reconstruction, not aided by the collapsing economy and the need to divert funds to support the refugees and West City..." He trailed off. "But I digress."

"Yes, a bit. What has this got to do with me?"

"Nothing, nothing directly anyway." Baldwin smiled. "Ms Briefs, are you happy with the way things are?"

"How do you mean?"

"With the way the world is and for you personally?"

"The world is the way it is and we have to deal with it as best we can." She shrugged. "As for me personally, not much has changed."

"But it has for your friends, ah, Son Goku? I understand he and his wife are living with you now?"

She nodded. "Yes. They were getting too much attention where they were living, so I accommodated them to get them away from it all. They are both rather private individuals."

"Of course, of course. You are good friends and the revelation of your friend being an alien, and such a powerful one at that, could not have been easy for the other residents."

"I suppose not…" Bulma frowned at Baldwin. Where was he going with this?

"Oh, I'm sorry, I completely forgot!" Baldwin pulled the book up from his lap. On the cover was Bulma's smiling face, when she was much younger, with the title: 'Inventing and Adventuring: The Story of My Life'. Her autobiography, heavily edited naturally, that she had written nearly a decade ago. "My wife is a huge fan of yours," Baldwin said. "When I said I was going to meet you she practically shoved this in my hand and made me promise I'd get it signed - otherwise no dinner for me tonight! So, would you?"

"Of course," Bulma smiled, taking the book and opening a pen. "Far be it from me to deprive a man of his dinner. What's your wife's name?"

"June."

"Lovely. 'To June, I hope you cook him something nice! Best wishes,'…" She scrawled her signature. "There," she said and passed the book back to Baldwin with a smile.

"Ah, thank you, thank you very much." Baldwin took the book and looked at the dedication. Then he flipped through some of the pages. "It's a very good book, I have to say. I read a bit of it myself. You were so brave for one so young, heading out into the world on your own like that. I could never have done that."

Bulma laughed. "Oh, I was a reckless free spirit back then. Were I to have the sense I have now, I doubt I'd have done it either."

Baldwin chuckled.

"Of course it's not the whole story though," he said after a moment.

"No, I might have to do an updated unedited version."

"I'm sure your publishers will be delighted."

"Tell me about it, they've been screaming at me to write it for almost a year now!"

They laughed.

"What really interests me, though, is what you were looking for when you were so young," he mused, after a moment.

"Nothing much, just adventure."

"Of course, of course. But this precious stone that the young boy had, from his grandfather… the young boy I presume is Son Goku?"

"Uh… yes…"

"I thought as much. But this precious stone, the way it's described. Nothing specific of course, but I can't help wondering if it was… a dragon ball."

Bulma's eyebrow arched. "How do you…?"

"The myths and legends have existed for many centuries now," Baldwin said, with a dismissive wave. "Of course you can't base policy around such things. Unless, of course, you're really desperate. And you have confirmation of their existence." Baldwin reached into the file and extracted a picture. He held it up to Bulma. On the picture was round, golden sphere, with one star in the centre of it. "Ms Briefs, would you confirm that that is a dragon ball?"

Bulma looked at the picture for a moment and decided that it was not worth lying. "Yes, that is a dragon ball," she said.

"Good," Baldwin put the picture down on the desk. "We were fairly sure that it was but, it helps to be certain."

"When did you get that?"

"An agent in the field found it."

"He just stumbled across it?"

"Not quite, he was tasked with looking for it, but it can be quite a chore. A very annoying task, as I'm sure that you can attest." He smiled at her.

"Oh, of course. Particularly when you lose it as well."

Baldwin blinked. "Lose it?"

"Yes or someone steals it. It's very frustrating, you put in all that work to get something and then someone grabs it from you in the blink of an eye." She smiled at Baldwin. "Still, I'm sure you wouldn't know what that's like, in relation to these."

"Uh… no… no we would not…" Baldwin shifted in his chair and coughed.

Bulma sat back a little. So that was it. She, as ever, had been keeping tabs on Pod Corporation, it helped to know what your rivals were up to, particularly when they always seemed bent on stealing their ideas. She had known for a while now that they were developing an energy capsule, to compete with Estella's as yet unfinished idea, with aide from the King, but she never imagined that the sketchy reports about there being another valuable object in their possession would be a dragon ball. And now the Shadow Dragons had it, if her intel was to be believed.

That's not good… Uub…

"Ms Briefs…" Baldwin began, snapping Bulma back to attention. "I want to be frank with you. We know that you were looking for the dragon balls, specifically, when you went out on your journey. And we know that you have the means to find them."

Bulma furrowed her brows at him. "How do you know that?" she asked.

"We're well informed," he said.

"By whom?"

"Ah… we have a… mutual friend… the Emperor Pilaf?"

Bulma's eyes widened a little.

"I see you recognise the name, it's not completely forgotten. Anyway we had a chat and he was… persuaded to tell us what he knew."

"And how exactly did you persuade him?" Bulma asked, a harsh tone creeping into her voice. Her heart had begun to beat faster.

Baldwin beamed at her. "With steak. And a lot of blackcurrant juice. He was quite resistant to opening up, which was surprising given that you were enemies, but eventually he decided that our… generosity should be rewarded."

Bulma frowned, her face becoming angry. "Get out," she said. "Out of my office, now."

"Ms Briefs, please be reasonable," Baldwin said, leaning forward. "I don't know what you're thinking, but I assure you it couldn't be further from the truth. We don't want to hurt you. All that we want is the dragon radar. That way, we can collect the dragon balls and we can then wish all the misery away. West City is rebuilt, the economy goes back to functioning and we'll even wipe everyone's memories about you and your friends so that you can all go back to the way you wanted to live. Doesn't that seem fair to you?"

"The dragon balls are not toys, Mr Baldwin," Bulma said. "And if the King can't solve this mess without cheating, then he should do the honourable thing and abdicate rather than clinging to power."

Baldwin's face went dark. "Ms Briefs, in failing to comply you will make his majesty very unhappy. And you wouldn't want that, would you?"

"Oh really?" Bulma crossed her arms and smiled. "So, pray, tell me what is the King going to do? Try and steal it, by sneaking someone in? Appropriating it by force? Because that's not going to work and you know it won't work. My husband, my son, my daughter, my best friend and my godson all have the power to blow-up a city and could sense an intruder entering the building before that person could even register consciously that they had got in. How exactly are you going to get the dragon radar if I don't give my permission?"

Baldwin glared at her. And then he smiled. The sudden change unsettled Bulma, but she didn't allow it to show.

"Do you mind if I ask something?" Baldwin said. "According to your autobiography, Ms Briefs, you met your husband, whilst journeying in a forest. He was the leader of some tribe of savages that were under attack by a businessman wanting to cut down the forest, am I correct?"

"Yes, according to the autobiography." Bulma had to fight to keep the smile from coming to her lips. Vegeta had not been happy when she had revealed how she was rewriting their relationship.

"He fell in love with you immediately and you brought him back to civilisation, where you lived for a few years before becoming happily married." Baldwin smiled. "It's a nice story. Such a shame that it's not true."

"Believe me, the real version is more spectacular."

"Oh I'm certain it is. Now, of course, as we all know your husband is in fact an alien, like Son Goku. And he first appears on our census records… a good few years ago, before you got married at any rate. Then he was just a tenant at your house, correct?"

"Yes."

"Of course, that isn't the first time he _appeared_ on Earth, though." Baldwin pulled another photo from his file and placed it on the desk. Bulma leaned forward and her eyes widened. It was a satellite picture, quite detailed, showing two figures standing next to craters with Saiyan pods inside of them, in the middle of a city, a crowd of onlookers staring at them. One of the figures was bulky and bald and the other was lean, with a jet of black spiky hair. Both wore armour, with golden shoulder plates. "Would you confirm, please, that the one with black hair is your husband?"

Bulma's mouth was dry, her heart beating. She said nothing.

"I thought as much. This next picture, shows the aftermath…" He placed another photo on top of the first one. Vegeta and Nappa were still there, but the area around them was now desolate.

Bulma swallowed.

"We've had these pictures for sometime but, due to a variety of problems with confirming things and, of course, our long-standing friendship with Capsule Corp. we didn't really do anything with them. Now, though… you appear to not want to give us what we're looking for, even though we asked nicely. So now we're doing things the hard way."

"What are you…?"

"I'll put it simply. I will return in one week, on this day at this time. When I return you will hand me the dragon radar. I will walk away and nothing more will happen. If you fail to hand me the dragon radar I will arrest your husband for the murder of 1.2 million people."

"What would that…?"

"Now I know what you'll say. We obviously don't have the ability to hold him, we know that, he'd escape and flee the planet and so forth. But I wonder what kind of damage, all of those revelations, will be done to Capsule Corp. and to you?" Baldwin smiled at her. Then he swept the photos away and patted them back into the file. "Well, I hope I never have to find out and I'm sure you do to."

"But, it's not so simple, I don't have the dragon radar," Bulma said.

"Then get it back," Baldwin said, standing. "Or build a new one. You have one week, I'm sure a genius of your intellect can do one of those two things. Don't worry, I'll show myself out."

Baldwin smiled again and nodded and then exited through the back door.

Bulma slumped back in her seat, staring at her desk, her arms handing by her side. For the first time in a long while she looked her age.

* * *

Son Goku stepped out of the gravity chamber and wiped his brow with a towel. He was sweating, training at 50g had taken a greater toll on him than it once would, but he still felt the same feeling of exhilaration when he worked. Another year of aging, at an accelerated rate, had taken its toll: there were more wrinkles on his face and his skin was stretched taught and thin over his muscles. His once black, messy hair was now a light shade of grey. Still he felt good, and that was what mattered to him.

He grinned and pulled on the top half of his gi on again. Despite his initial reluctance to move out from his home, where he had lived with Chi-Chi for more years than he could count, he was finding living at Capsule Corp. to be good. It was certainly less stressful for him and Chi-Chi and having friends around was particularly helpful to his wife, who had never quite been as comfortable in isolation as Goku was.

He ascended the stairs, on the way out of the basement and stepped into the living room, intending to go upstairs to have a shower before seeing what Chi-Chi wanted to do, when the caught the sense of someone familiar and paused. He looked over and beamed at the two people sat in the couch in front of the enormous TV screen.

"Hey Pan!" he called cheerfully.

His granddaughter looked up. Dressed in a red T-shirt and grey pirate shorts, and her black hair cut short now so it resembled her mother's when she was a teenager, Pan smiled at her grandfather. Slumped along the other couch was Goku's God daughter, Bra, who was dressed in a loose fitting shirt and pyjama bottoms, with her long green hair splayed in a mess.

"Hi," Pan said, whilst Bra smiled and waved. "I keep forgetting you're living here now. We're you training?"

"Uh yeah," Goku said, a little sheepishly.

Pan smiled slyly. "I thought Dad told you that that wasn't good for your health?"

"I know but the gravity chamber is too tempting an opportunity."

Pan laughed. "Don't worry, I won't rat on you." She turned her head back to the TV.

Goku looked over. The two were clutching controllers in their hands whilst, on the screen, they appeared to be playing a racing game. Only the game was moving incredibly fast.

"Is this kind of thing really being sold?" Goku asked. "I'm no expert but this looks a little too fast for human reactions."

"It is," Bra confirmed. "I had Trunks tinker with it and modify it. He increased the frame rate and speed of everything, so now its actually fun for us to play." As if on cue Bra's car, on the top screen, adjusted too much and spun off slightly, causing Bra to swear and Pan to smirk as she overtook.

Goku blinked and looked between the two girls, with their silent and intense expressions. "Well I'll leave you too to your 'fun'," he said. "Are you staying round tonight Pan?"

"Yep," the girl replied, without looking up.

"Great! Maybe later we can have a sparring match?"

Pan froze a moment before replying. "Yeah… maybe…"

Goku grinned at her and then made his way up the stairs towards the bedrooms.

Bra glanced across at Pan. "You still haven't got over it?" she asked.

Pan didn't reply.

Bra sighed. "Pan… I know what happened and what it was like for you but this… this is a bit extreme…" Pan jabbed at the joystick. "I mean you haven't fought or trained in over a year. I know your dad's delighted now that your top of the class but still even he's worried about you. We all are."

"I'm fine. I've just…" She turned away from the screen and looked out of the window. The sun was beginning to set, outlining the structures of the still ruined West City.

"You were under a spell. Nobody blames you."

"I blame me." Pan looked at Bra. "Because even though I was under a spell… I still enjoyed it… I was still exhilarated by it, by having that power. A part of me isn't even sure if I didn't invite it just to get that…"

"That's nonsense."

"Maybe. But either way I've realised, that I'm not capable of handling that power. I don't have the responsibility to use it wisely. So I don't use it. And I won't."

She turned her attention back to the game and overtook Bra again.

"Don't punish yourself forever because of one mistake," Bra said after a moment. "We all make mistakes. But the key is to learn from them, not repudiate the whole thing for eternity."

Pan nodded but said nothing.

They were silent, apart from the frequent ribbing of one another over failures in the game, and curses over those failures. The front door slammed and Bra looked up from the couch.

"Hey Mom!" she called. Then she frowned. Bulma looked worn and a little… dazed? Either way she didn't look like she was completely there. Bra paused the game. "Hey Mom… are you okay?"

"Huh… oh, hi sweetie," Bulma smiled. "Have you had a nice day?"

"Sort of. A lazy one. I said Pan could stay around tonight, is that okay?"

"That's fine." Bulma looked away.

"Are you okay Mom? You look like something is bothering you?"

"Hum? Oh, sorry. Just a long day… Listen have either of you heard from Uub recently?"

Bra and Pan exchanged a look. "No… why?" Bra asked.

"Oh, no reason. I was just curious. Bra can you tell your brother that I won't be able to make the game tonight? I'm not feeling too well."

"Sure Mom. Hope you feel better soon!"

Bulma smiled at her daughter and gave a small wave. Then she made her way to the stairs and climbed slowly up them. The two girls watched her go and then looked at one another. Bra nibbled on her thumbnail. "I've not seen Mom like that before…" she said after a moment. "She looked really worried about something."

Pan nodded. "I doubt her asking about Uub was just out of concern for him either."

"Right… I'll send him a message and at least find out whereabouts he is." Bra dug out her phone and then began to tap at the screen. "And… send…" she said as she hit the send button.

* * *

_Brrrrrr! Brrrrrr! Brrrrr!_

"Shit!"

His hand slipped on the side of the rock face and he fell downwards. He threw out another hand and grabbed an opening in the rock face halting his momentum. The jolt on his arm hurt, but he shook it off.

Uub sighed as he looked down. He was hanging several miles up from the ground, beneath him a raft of trees. That was close. He could have sworn that he'd put that damn thing on silent… He hung where he was for a moment. He wore a simple baggy shirt and trousers, secured with a belt. On his back was a rucksack and his hands had cloth wrapped around them, from his hands to his elbow. His mohawk hair blew softly in the breeze.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

Bra: 'Hey - where are you? Are you ok? Mom was asking after you.'

Uub frowned at the message and then tapped out his reply: 'I'm fine - climbing a rock at the moment. Why was she asking?'

He hit send and then switched the phone to silent. He put it back in his pocket and continued his climb. It would, obviously, have been easier to fly, but he was here to test himself. At least in part.

After about ten minutes of careful climbing he made it to the top of the rock face. He swung his legs over and stood at the top. He looked out and could see for miles around him, the wind whipping around him. In the distance was the village that he'd set out from, surrounding him the forest. And all the way down, beneath the mass of trees, was where he had begun his climb. He grinned and punched the air. Triumph!

He picked the phone out of his pocket as he turned around. Another new message from Bra: 'Glad to hear your okay J No idea, but she looked a little worried.'

Uub frowned and put the phone back in his pocket. Bulma asking after him was a little unusual. He didn't know her that well. He wondered what it was about and then dismissed the notion. Probably nothing important. It's not like it was Goku anyway… He clenched his fist and then shook his head. He swung the rucksack off of his shoulder and opened the front pocket. From it he removed the dragon radar. He tapped the top of it. The machine's green, grided screen blipped, showing his position in relation to the dragon ball. He was almost on top of it.

He stepped forward a few paces. At the top of the rock face was a tree, on its own before a set of other trees began a new forest. The radar indicated that the dragon ball was located near the tree. He walked over to it, glanced at the radar and then studied the tree. There was a small hole in the trunk and Uub peeked into it. He grinned. Inside was an animal's nest, of what kind he wasn't sure. But more important, there was a dragon ball stuffed at the back of it.

Uub reached in and pulled the ball out. The Seven-Star. He grinned and chucked it up in the air and then caught it. Four down, three to go!

He sat down and opened his rucksack. In the back pocket was the Four-Star, the One-Star and the Five-Star dragon ball. He studied them a moment and then dropped the Seven-Star into the bag. He zipped it up and then stood up. He tapped the top of the dragon radar. Nothing else in vision, so he cycled through it until the scale changed. Another two were now visible on the radar, one to the West and the other to the East. The one to the West would take him towards West City. He looked around and mulled on it for a moment. Then he put the dragon radar back in the bag and turned towards the East. He would save the West City one for last.

He started on his way. He looked down and held up his left hand. He stared at the bandages wrapped around the palm. He clenched his fingers together.

Three to go…

* * *

"No -! no -! please -! please -! don't -!"

The shot fired and the man's head snapped back, the blood spurting over the wall.

The white grinning dragon mask took centre of the frame again.

"Number eight," Omega said. "How many more, I wonder?"

Gohan's eyes narrowed in anger. He had watched this video countless times now, the latest one they had uploaded. Over ten million views, and it had only come out a month ago. And nothing. He couldn't do anything! His hand shook on the mouse.

"Gohan…?"

Gohan slapped at the mouse and the screen minimized. He looked over his shoulder. Videl, wearing a white shirt and jeans, was just entering his office, in the home.

"Hey," Gohan said, trying his best not to look guilty. "What's up?"

"Nothing," she said, a small smile creeping onto her features. "I was just coming to say that dinner was ready."

"Really? Normally you just shout."

"Yes, but Pan's staying around Bra's today, so that's not necessary."

"Ah…" Gohan turned back to the computer. On it was now a draft of a paper he was working on. "Time was that would make me feel nervous. Now I just feel… sad…"

"I know…" Videl put her arms around Gohan's shoulders. "I worry about her too. Before I didn't like her being out late and fighting so much, to many uncomfortable memories, but now… knowing she's round Bra's and the most they'll be doing is playing games and watching movies, and all other times she's just studying it…"

Gohan squeezed her hand. "She'll snap out of it. It was a big thing that happened." He kissed her on the cheek and smiled at her. "I'm sure she'll be all right."

Videl nodded and smiled. "Yeah, I think she will be too. Although it probably doesn't help having a one-armed father as a constant reminder…" Videl prodded Gohan in the forehead.

Gohan humphed and turned back to the computer. "Yes, yes, yes. I know. You've been going on about this for ages now…"

Videl giggled. "So what is my genius husband working on now?"

"Oh, just revising my proposal to study long range ki movements. I'm still trying to work out the maths behind it and… well it's not easy, so the funding would be nice. But, you know, funding is required for more practical projects is the constant rejection notice."

"Well if you want to engage in mathematical games with no relevance to reality I'm sure the economics department would be happy to oblige you…"

"Hey! This is very relevant to reality!"

Videl laughed at Gohan's indignant response.

"Of course the real reason they reject is because they don't want me to take time off…" He continued. "After all I am the major attraction that pulls students in. Applications to study there are up nearly two-hundred percent."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Videl said, humouring him. She'd heard this rant before and knew it was to let him have it.

"Yes, but they all come because of my achievements in the realm of smashing people's heads in. I'd prefer it if they came because of my achievements in physics."

"I know… It's not been easy for all of us."

This was true. Soon after the battle in West City various videos, of varying quality, had made their way online showing them fighting off the alien invasion. Naturally a massive news campaign had begun to identify the people in it. Vegeta and Yamcha had been the first two to be recognised, given their more high profile visage (much as Vegeta had tried to avoid it, but being married to Bulma…). After that Gohan had been swiftly named, as had Piccolo - who was recognised as being the Demon King. From there it was Goku, who was remembered by some people who had witnessed the Budokai tournament he won, following that Trunks and Goten were assumed and then confirmed as being part of it. After that it all just came out. Overnight, almost, they'd become massive sensations and the attention had become a bit much, particularly for Goku and Chi-Chi. The others were dealing with it in their own ways but sometimes…

"I'm sorry," Gohan said. "I know I shouldn't be complaining, I've had it easy compared to others. I mean I'm complaining about having hundreds of adoring fans turning up whereas you and your dad…"

Videl smiled at him. "Don't worry about it. We'll get through and this will all blow off soon. I know I said that last year but…"

Gohan smiled at her. Then his stomach growled. Loudly. And insistently.

"Ah… guess it's time to eat!" He leapt out of his chair and made for the door. Videl laughed as she watched him look back over his shoulder, sheepishly, before heading outside and down the stairs.

"I'll be down in a sec!" Videl called.

"Okay!"

She turned away and her smile faded slightly. She clicked at the closed tab at the bottom of the computer screen. The concluded video of Omega's previous assassination came up. Videl sighed sadly. "Gohan…" she murmured to herself.

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready!" the announcer screamed into the microphone. The crowd roared back at him. The announcer was stood in the centre of the basketball arena, playing to a full house. "Please welcome your teams for today's match: the West City Wolves against the East City Eagles!"

The crowd roared again as the two teams entered to thumping music, the Wolves in yellow and black and the Eagles in white and blue. The crowd was split about 70-30 in favour of the Wolves, which made sense as they were on home territory.

Trunks leaned back and grinned. Next to him his wife, Estella, also smiled. The two had decided to take a night off from doing work and going out to enjoy themselves. As both were fans of the sport, this seemed a natural choice. Now, sat with the best seats in the house in the director's box, they were beginning to relax.

They were both wearing casual clothes, though Estella had forcefully combed Trunks' hair so it looked neat. She, after all, didn't want everyone to think that she was married to a scruff-ball.

The two teams took their positions on the court as the announcer began to walk inwards. "I'd also like everyone to know that, adding to the occasion, one of the Wolves' great champions is in attendance. One of their great champions, and ours. Mr Trunks Briefs, Vice-President of Capsule Corporation and saviour of the world is here!"

The crowd roared in approval. Trunks stood up slightly and waved to all corners of the arena. Then he sat down and composed his face.

Estella jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow. "Don't act like you didn't enjoy that," she said, with a smile. "You're loving every second of this attention."

"Not at all," he replied, with a hurt expression. "I just want to give them the recognition they expect."

"Yeah, sure, Mr Saviour-of-the-World," she teased, to which Trunks just flashed his most charming smile.

On the court the ball was taken and the referee blew his whistle for the game to begin. The Wolves dribbled and passed the ball, breaking into the Eagles territory, before setting up a move that finished with them scoring a field goal. The crowd roared and Trunks cheered, as the Wolves celebrated and moved back to their half…

And then the roaring died down as three figures stepped onto the court.

Trunks stood up and glared at them. All three of them wore jackets, over combat trousers and shirts, with military boots. The one out in front had a blue coloured paper dragon mask with a frowning expression on his face, the one to his left had a pink dragon with a sleeping face and the one of the right a black dragon with a confused expression.

"Greetings," the blue dragon announced in a slightly high-pitched tone. "My name is Gamma. I'm a member of the Shadow Dragons. And I'm afraid your fun is over."

Gamma suddenly raised his right hand and aimed his gun at the director's box. He squeezed the trigger and the bullet shot forward, heading straight for Estella's forehead.

Before she could scream a hand wreathed in a golden aura shot out in front of her and caught it. Trunks, now a Super Saiyan, turned his furious expression back at the dragons.

The other two dragons raised their guns, uzis, and fired into the crowd. The people screamed and ran, falling over one another, as some were struck by the scattering bullets. The blue dragon threw out his left hand and a grenade arced through the air and landed near the team benches, who yelled and started to dart away.

Trunks shot down and threw his body over the grenade. It exploded and he winced as his body absorbed the impact, his shirt being torn apart by the explosion. He looked up in time to see the Shadow Dragons retreat behind a smoke grenade.

"Hey! You cowards get back here!" Trunks yelled as he dashed into the smoke. He found himself in a corridor, where the referee and coaching would walk out from. He looked left and right but could not see anything.

He shot down the corridor and looked to his left when he reached the end. Again, nothing doing the adjoining corridor. "Cowards!" he screamed. "Do you think you can shoot at my wife and just run away!?" He stalked down the corridor a bit further, focusing his mind. Why couldn't he pick up their ki signatures? "Get out here!" he roared, igniting his aura and expanding the energy. It ripped through the walls, knocking them apart and revealing the bare rooms behind them.

He panted in rage and then calmed himself down. He focused again… but still nothing. This wasn't possible; he had to be able to pick up something! No way could ordinary humans hide their power levels like that, it just wasn't possible!

Cursing in frustration he ran back down the corridor. He had to make sure Estella was all right. When he reached the arena a huge commotion was underway, the wounded screaming in agony, whilst everyone else were either running away or trying to help the wounded. The announcer was out in the middle, trying to calm the crowd down and reassuring them that ambulances were on the way.

"Hey you!" a voice yelled at Trunks. He turned his head to see an angry and tearful man glaring at him. "Why didn't you save my girlfriend!?"

"What?" Trunks asked, confused.

"Yeah!" someone else screamed. "You can save your own bitch, but you can't help other people!?"

"I don't -"

"You can move faster than light to save your own, but not others! Some fucking hero you are!"

Loud shouts of anger began to be directed at Trunks, as well as things being thrown at him. One or two people began to climb over the barriers. Trunks rasied his hands, trying to pacify the growing mob.

"Let's see how you like it!" a voice roared and Trunks snapped his head over as Estella screamed. A group of people were charging at the director's box and clawing at his wife, who was scooting backwards to get away, as others descended down from behind.

"Get away from her!" Trunks yelled and shot forward. The force of his aura passing was enough to knock the people back, sending them sprawling onto the court. Trunks grabbed Estella, hoisting her into his arms and then he jetted towards the roof, breaking through the skylight and shooting out into the night air.

He roared through the night sky, a streak of gold against the starry background.

"Trunks…" Estella said, after a while, her voice shaky. "Trunks… it's okay, you can stop…"

He didn't reply.

"Trunks, calm down. I'm okay…"

"Those assholes…" Trunks growled. Tears welled up in his eyes. "Did any of them… they didn't…"

"I'm fine," Estella said, stroking his cheek. "I'm fine, don't worry about me."

Trunks took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He lowered his aura, reverting back from his Super Saiyan state. He took another deep breath and let it out again, calming himself. "Okay… okay… We'll stay at Capsule Corp. tonight though… I don't want to risk anything…"

"Okay…"

Silently the two moved through the night, heading for sanctuary.

* * *

_Hey there everyone and thanks for reading the first episode of Dragon Ball XVI - I hope you enjoyed it!_

_We're starting a bit faster than in XV, and things are going to be moving on swiftly. As you can see the subtle propaganda campaign the Shadow Dragons have been running is, after a year, beginning to take effect on the population. Coupled with the various other problems they're facing, that's clearly all our heroes need!_

_The synopsis at the start is, I hope, an adequeate refresher and a good primer for those who are new readers. I'll probably be updating it a bit as time goes by, so check back on occassion if it doesn't quite make sense. I think I covered all of the major points though._

_Right, couple of things to clear up, the update schedule for this is likely going to be once a month for a bit. I might speed it up depending on how well I do with writing and managing things, but for now I'm playing it safe. Secondly, Uub has lost the power of Buu, but he's not an ordinary human. He can fly and use ki, he's just choosing not to here. Power wise he's probably just slightly weaker than Krillin at this stage._

_Okay, onto the questions!_

**Q: wow nice chapter shame radits wont be back for the little girl but I wonder what will happen to her then and what is she**

_All in good time ;)_

**Q: The legend returns! Glad to see you back on here El...looking forward to this! Loved Raditz's characterization here; the girl was interesting too. Good work buddy!**

_Thanks! ...Wait, the story, the characters or me?_

**Q: This is freaky and I can tell from the story description and the prologue itself, that this one will be a good one.  
I was very surprised that Raditz was the main guy to kick this off, and by the looks of things we might get to his reaction later on this story when this girl returns which I'm assuming will happen. I felt my shock when Raditz said he'd come back for her, knowing full well what would happen. Well this little girl is going to be furious! But the number twenty-eight is specified for a reason, eh? Great I'll be trying to solve that one out throughout this story now, haha! By the way I'm getting a sort of Doctor Who vibe with the girl that waited as well!**

_Thanks, I'm glad to hear that it was having this effect - it's what I was going for! The girl's story will be left for the moment, thought it will be returned to. The idea with the prologue was to kick things off in an unexpected manner, and hopefully leave people wondering what's going on and hooking them with taht mystery. You'd be right about your vibe - but I suspect this girl won't get the same happy ending ;)_

**Q: Neat, I started out thinking this was some sort of alternate universe not a prequel DBZ. Damn good start. As for how Raditz knew I don't think it was actually a secret, Kakkarot just got sent to the ass end of nowhere and nobody bothered to go pick his ass up. I like that you have the astroid explanation in there. That little girl is sufficiently scary by the way, if Raditz had a lick of sense he'd eliminate that planet from outerspace and hope she can't breathe in space. I mean GAH 600k is a serious power.**

_Thank you! Yeah, but seeing as he was off planet at the time, how would he have known which assend of nowhere to go to? There probably is some logical explanation but, this is my one. I think when you come across a power like that you just get the hell out of there as quick as you can - and do your best to keep your promise! I don't think Raditz would be strong enough to blow up the planet anyway - in my head canon I think you'd need to be at Frieza tier before you could do that._

**Q: Excellent. I knew that stinger at the end of XV wasn't just for kicks. Does the I stand for anything in particular? Infinity?  
Considering the amount of blood DBZ had compared to its peers, I doubt anyone will have any problem with you going with darker themes. Good luck sir.**

_Thanks - I suspect I'll need that luck! The I is the Roman numeral for one, with the X and V being ten and five respectively. So XVI is meaning sixteen, to mean sixteen years after the end of Z._

**Q: 123456728 - black star dragonballs coming through, guys and girls! The badguys call themselves shadow dragons. Omega is the head human badguy. I forsee a mythical forgotten goddemon girl (all grown up and angry at earth for killing her friend) turning some evil humans into real dragons. Looking forward to this alternate GT ;-)**

_Maaayyybbbeee... I'm revealing nothing! Glad to hear you're looking forward to it!_

**Q: Great start, I read the last one yesterday and have started this. I'm looking forward to how it develops! :)**

_Thank you! I hope it doesn't dissapoint!_

_Thanks again to everyone for reading and reviewing!_


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